2022/06/14
The 20th term of the Hsi Lai Senior Program began online on June 14th. 50 seniors registered for this term. This summer, Hsi Lai Senior Program offered several courses, such as painting, reading, exercise, music and lectures.
In his opening speech, Abbot Ven. Hui Dong of Hsi Lai Temple stated, “Thank you volunteers for your long-term support and for designing rich and diverse courses for the senior program. Your efforts not only gain yourselves infinite merits but also are greatly appreciated by all. To seniors who never miss a class, I praise your great spirits. Missing classes due to aging is inevitable. Your body may get weak or sick. Visiting doctors is necessary. You should never worry about it too much but learn to face and accept aging gracefully. That’s truly letting go. You might often worry about your children or grandchildren. However, they need to know how to take care of themselves because that’s part of their growing up.”
With many years of experience as an art teacher, Jun Wang taught the painting class in a simple and easy-to-understand way so everyone could complete a landscape sketch, step-by-step. Director Echo Tsai guided the reading group through topical articles selected from the works of Ven. Master Hsing Yun to stimulate discussion. In exercise class, Yanqing Huang focused on whole-body movements to develop everyone’s muscle strength and joint health. Veteran music teacher, Yueli Ou, taught the song, Happy Marriage, wishing to bless any families having a wedding.
Director Echo Tsai said, “We appreciate Venerable Hui Dong’s earlier speech. It’s true the younger generations grow up only after they experience the challenges themselves. We have to let them fly. They have their own destinies.” Today’s meeting on Zoom utilized “immersive view” to make everyone feel like they were sitting together in a movie theater or an art gallery where they could view their self-portraits. It was a brand new feature,which jazzed up the meeting.
